


Something that worked for a while

by a_big_apple



Series: Benevolence [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Backstory, Childhood, Gen, Growing Up Too Fast, Scrappy Kids, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 13:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13525335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple
Summary: There’s a bright moon outside the open window, and the light limns the unfamiliar room. He can’t get comfortable. The cot is too small, or too big, and the house is too quiet when everyone’s asleep. He’s never slept alone before, and he suddenly feels like he might never be able to sleep again. “I think I made a mistake,” he whispers to the pillow, and pretends his sister can hear him.





	Something that worked for a while

**Author's Note:**

> For Twins Week Day 3: Childhood! I also used a randomly-chosen prompt from [this meme](http://a-big-apple.tumblr.com/post/169799087276/send-me-two-characters-or-more-and-a-prompt-and#notes), "I think I made a mistake."
> 
> This is a closer look at something I referenced in [Fission](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12368451), but you don't have to read any of my other fics to enjoy this one. :)

Cousin Drey and Cousin Seela already have six children, all older than Koko. Their house is bigger than Auntie’s, but not big enough; they make up a cot for him in the kitchen, because he offered to earn his keep with cooking. At least it’s warm there, and smells yeasty from the bread dough he started rising in a bowl on the counter.

There’s a bright moon outside the open window, and the light limns the unfamiliar room. He can’t get comfortable. The cot is too small, or too big, and the house is too quiet when everyone’s asleep. He’s never slept alone before, and he suddenly feels like he might never be able to sleep again. “I think I made a mistake,” he whispers to the pillow, and pretends his sister can hear him.

But what other choice did he have? Auntie’s slowing down. Her heart is under strain, the healer told Cousin Drey, when he thought Koko was out of the room. Age, and stress, and not enough money or energy to care for two children barely fifty years old. Two children whose bodies are growing, changing all the time. When Drey offered to take one of them—just one of them—Koko thought, if he could take himself out of the picture, maybe even find paying work on the side, that would ease the burden. Lulu could stay with Auntie, could maybe get what she needs to feel okay about her body, and Koko...he’d be fine.

He can visit. It’s not that far, he can walk the distance in a few hours.

As soon as the sun rises, he’ll make breakfast. Prep a cold lunch and a dinner that can simmer, and if he hurries he can go visit and be back in time to proof the bread and bake it.

He’s taking stock of what he can see in the moonlight, considering how best to feed nine elves three meals and still see his sister, how many times a week he might feasibly do that and still find work in town, what kind of work he’ll consider if the pay is good enough—

The moonlight changes, moves, and he turns his face toward the window; a shadow slides over the sill and into the room. In a dirtied nightgown, the moon’s bright outline around her, she looks like a ghost. For a moment Koko is afraid he’s dreaming her.

Then his sister crawls onto the too-small cot, wedges her body between his back and the wall. She wraps her arms around him, shoves her chilled nose against the back of his neck.

 _"Dingus,"_ she hisses. “I won’t stay there without you. I won’t stay anywhere without you.”

Koko doesn’t answer; he presses his face into the pillow, presses his whole self back into his sister’s hold. She finds his hands and grips them, rubs her nose back and forth across his nape as he cries.

They wake together, with the sunrise. They wash up in the kitchen sink, dress in clothes from the meager stash Koko brought, and fold the cot away. Then Lup dictates a note, written in Koko’s rounded hand. It reads:

_Dear Cousins,_

_Thank you for the offer, but we’re going home._

_-Koko and Lulu_

_PS - Let the dough rise until at least lunchtime._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at a-big-apple if you want to stop by and say hello!


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